Studied During the Second FDJ School Year

From the wake of Nazi Germany and World War II, the German Democratic Republic, or GDR, in East Germany was the primary system that emerged to take the mantle. However, unlike their predecessors, the GDR started out in a position of relative weakness, at least in regards to their communication networks and propaganda systems (Bytwerk). Years of National Socialism left the GDR with few propagandists and a mass media system in shambles, forcing the fledgling government to immediately and efficiently start rebuilding their communication and propaganda networks (Bytwerk). To educate the population on propaganda and mass media, numerous agitators and propagandists were recruited and trained on various levels to spread information on the success of the fledgling nation (Bytwerk). It was from this framework of propagandization that numerous, state controlled programs sprang up, including the Free German Youth, or FDJ, the GDR’s organization for the young (Bytwerk). Propaganda produced for this organization showed how the FDJ successfully educated the German population from a young age on Soviet principles, with an emphasis being placed on the the nation’s new ties to the Soviet Union and how the youth were embracing this new heritage.

Studied during the second FDJ School Year is a poster that exemplifies this, urging its viewers to learn about the Soviet Union. It’s caption states “the priceless experiences of Soviet people in building communism”, suggesting the importance of students in embracing their new acquired Soviet heritage and learning about the history of the Soviet Union. The poster uses a boy and a girl dressed in similar uniforms to show the new, Soviet Germany exemplified by the GDR. The poster further emphasizes the presence of the Soviet Union through the use of red throughout it, including on the large map of the expanding Soviet Union displayed behind the two students. This poster thus emphasizes both the dominance and the importance of the Soviet system and Soviet heritage, while simultaneously communicating how the FDJ program was a success in its second year in spreading its principles.

However, despite the success ever present in the propaganda released throughout the GDR, the government and the nation were, in fact, slowly eroding at the core. Though the emergence of the propaganda and agitator systems were a success in the nation, including within organizations such as the FDJ, the nation itself was struggling economically. An emphasis on numbers and production outweighed the importance of actual results, with the GDR’s bureaucratic system rewarding high numbers and meeting quotas, particularly on paper (Bytwerk). Problems were further exacerbated by the GDR governmental bodies keeping strict tabs on information coming out of its propaganda machine, leaving many of its propagandists and much of its populace in the dark (Bytwerk). Coupled with strict tabs to prevent news of struggle leaking to West Germany, the nation slowly drained itself economically while allowing itself to be buoyed on successes in agitation and propaganda, emerging in the end not with real outputs but valueless numbers growing ever higher on paper as it slowly eroded away.

Sources:

Bytwerk, Randall L. Bending Spines: The Propaganda’s of Nazi Germany and the German Democratic Republic. East Lansing, MI: Michigan State University Press, 2004.